Ilya Sutskever Testifies in OpenAI Lawsuit, Reveals 52-Page Memo on Altman

According to Beating Monitor, Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and former chief scientist of OpenAI, testified in court on Monday in the case of Musk v. OpenAI, providing for the first time a full account of his efforts to remove Altman. He said he spent approximately one year gathering evidence to demonstrate Altman’s “pattern of persistent dishonesty,” including inciting infighting among executives. At the board’s request, he drafted a memo, which previous testimony revealed was 52 pages long. He said he had engaged in “long discussions” with then-CTO Mira Murati about the possibility of removing Altman, ultimately describing the November 2023 removal as a “desperate gamble.” However, Sutskever also defended OpenAI in court, stating that OpenAI never committed to operating permanently as a nonprofit and that the transition to a for-profit entity was a consensus among the team. When asked about the impact of computing power on AI development, he likened it to “the difference between an ant and a cat,” emphasizing that without money, there is no access to large-scale computing. He revealed that he turned down a $6 million annual salary offer from Google to join OpenAI. Sutskever also disclosed that his current stake in OpenAI is valued at approximately $7 billion (around $5 billion as of November 2025), making him one of the largest known individual shareholders. He further confirmed for the first time that during Altman’s brief removal, the remaining board members explored a merger proposal with competitor Anthropic, under which Anthropic would assume leadership of OpenAI—but he expressed little enthusiasm for the merger. Sutskever left OpenAI in 2024 to found his new company, Safe Superintelligence. The case is nearing its conclusion; the judge announced that closing arguments will be held on Thursday, and Altman is expected to testify on Tuesday.